Battlestar Galactica February 4, 2005. Spoiler Talk

[Aries_Omega]

And that bit where Apollo and Adama bond was a damn fine scene. Apollo essentially is told for the first time that his father loves him and his reaction was dead on. Kudos to both actors.

Kind of reminds me of Hank Hill. "Bobby...I can almost hug you right now". Very powerful seen.

Aries

 

[Krieg]

Bobby, if you weren't my son, I'd hug you.

BTW did anyone notice that the toaster looked like a Cylon?

 

[Truth Seeker]

I liked it.

Starbuck figuring how to pilot the red-eye flight

I figured when I saw that the foot pedals that the "brain" was more of a human-based cybernetic organism. I am assuming that the cylons have better fighters than the humans, but that the cylons themselves are subject to a design flaw where they become too predictable because the pilot program is always the same, unlike the humans. So the ships are better, explaining why Starbuck could still outfly Apollo, but the cylon brains operating it have to come dangerously close to being a true human to preserve what elements of randomness it can.

Adama doing a 180 and forgiving Starbuck

First it isn't clear that he did forgive her. It was just that the reality of her loss hit harder than his anger toward her. Adama is a very cold man, his own son had to question whether or not he'd be searched for given a similar scenario. So Adama simply isn't very good at expressing complex emotions like the ones he faced in this episode and as a result he goes too far in all directions: from threatening Starbuck to truly embracing her as a daughter.

The President not asking for resignation

She's gambling the entire civilian leadership against the possibility that Adama might wise up in an hour or two? No chance. She is only in charge at his sufferance. If Adama wanted to stage a coup, he could and with very little effort. The rag-tag fugitive fleet needs the Galactica FAR more than the Galactica needs the fleet. As Adama said, if it had been Apollo, they wouldn't have abandoned the search at all.

And that bit where Apollo and Adama bond was a damn fine scene. Apollo essentially is told for the first time that his father loves him and his reaction was dead on. Kudos to both actors.

May I add, when he screamed, "NO!" in the C&C, I did nearly jump out of my bed, almost three times(seeing it that much)

The Look of Adama, after he kissed Starbuck on the forehead, was very, very, very...heartwarming.

And finally, Starbuck's survival skills...just top-notched.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I thought it was a great episode. It showed us something we didn't already know about the cylons (biotech) and it showed the complex relationship between Adama and his kids - whether they be biological or adopted. As far as I'm concerned, another top notch effort in an outstanding series.

 

[fett527]

Agree with the positive assesments. I thought the episode was great. What I would say in detail has already been said.

 

[jasper]

I like it but it could have be great is after she got oxgen she suited up again for the space flight. But then you would a hard time shooting her face through the helm.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

All IMO remember

The whole freakin cylon ship. Her hole patch wouldn't have survived the vacuum.

I had a discussion about this on the SciFi Board, and it seems as if this is actually very likely.
You should also note that she had her emergency kit with her, which is probably designed to help a pilot in emergencies exactly like that (hence emergency kit )

The controls (while really cool in and of themselves - I really like the idea of the ship being the cylon) just don't lend themselves to crawling in and flying away.

Since the Cylons are humans now, maybe the designed their Raiders for two purposes: Flying alone or as a personal shuttle transport. Since they appear to have FTL capability, Raiders might be a good way to infilitrate the Colony worlds - jump in, land the agent, jump away.

Especially when she then outflies Apollo. A suspension of disbelief issue. Too much of a female MacGuyver in space feel.

She didn´t really outfly Apollo. She just had to evade him and didn´t have to make an attack run. She flew erratically, which probably made Apollo wonder and hesitate - after 33, he knows exactly how Cylons fly.
The biggest stretch for me was that she was able to find the Galactica seemingly without instruments...

The too rapid about face by Adama, if there would have been an episode or two between this one and the "Leave this cabin while you still can" episode I would have been happier.
And other niggling little character behaviors that just seemed, well anomalous.

It was so rapid due to the circumstances, I guess. He realized that he absolutely didn´t want to lose her at the moment she was lost.

I liked the episode before this one much more. I hope the rest are as good as it was.
enjoy

Having said all this, I agree on this point. And, to confirm your hopes: I KNOW that at least some of the later episodes are as great as this one.

 

[Laurel]

Though I agree with the fact that the whole patch job and learning the controls so quick and so well just sort of bothered me. I would say overall not too bad. Not my favorite thus far, but they've had some good ones and if this is the worst then I'm fine with that.

I think they could have used more inbetween and used the tension, it almost felt they wanted to rush everything to a close in a two part and have everything more back to normal by the third episode. But one thing I have liked about it is the fast pace.

I did also like how even when apollo was so sure at the end and everyone else was ready to just accept it was starbuck adama still had the command of basically shoot if it does anything wrong or out of place.

 

[dravot]

Though I agree with the fact that the whole patch job and learning the controls so quick and so well just sort of bothered me.

I just figured that the patch job was a temporary one so she could get to work (the planet had an atmosphere, so she wasn't worried about vacuum at the moment), and that she'd do a more permanent patch before she launched.

 

[The_Universe]

I liked everything but the patch of cloth apparently standing up to vaccuum, and Starbuck's amazing ability to fly incredibly well without any sensors but her own eyes - a little fishy.

While I grant that a lot of that stuff could have been explained away by stuff we didn't see, the fact remains that it was not explained, and we didn't see it.

Loved the character moments, thought painting "Starbuck" on the bottom wings was genius - but I left the episode wondering hw in the hell she managed to pilot so well with nothing but a tiny window into space...how would she have known that Adama was even on her tail?

Eh - still love this show...but there are better episodes to be sure.

On another note - how does Helo not think, "They must be trying to keep me alive" now - he *has* to suspect that something strange is going on, now...doesn't he?